Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-11-11
Arctic VeRetatiOn.

Just as soon as the ground is barren Of
snow, about the 10th of July for King Will
Jams land-vegetation springs up in way
that any one would pronounce more tropi-
cal than polar. Nor does it wait long after
the snow before the pretty Arctic flowers
come peeping through, as thick as in any
better attended bed at home. | have seen
them growing so close to the snow that it
had to be pressed aside with the foot in or
der to pick them, while NliddendorH tells
us that he has seen in the Stanavoi noun
tans of Siberia, IA rhododendron in full
blossom, when the roots and the stem were
completely incased in soil solidly frozen
through. He also speaks of the rapid rise,
and decided effect of the midsummer Arc
tic heat; recalling an instance wherein the
pitch on his boat would melt when the sun
shone against it, while a Thermometer in
the shade near by indicated, by striking
contrast, as low as 80 f. He also speaks
of the Siberian Arctic soil absorbing heat
very rapidly under the ceaseless influences
of a never-setting sun. As far north as
latitude a ) he found the soil at SO just
below the surface though at four inches
from the surface it was but 80. When on
King Williams land / often crossed marshy
places where the moss was studded with
| flowers that sprang from the little soil the
sphagnum held, and oftentimes this thick
sphagnum would break under the feet as
we walked along in the hot August sun,
and the person would sink about foot to
Is inches in the marsh only to bring up on
solidly frozen ground beneath. 1t was
really wading through ice water, although
vegetation fourished, the surface water
being little warmer than that below, how
ever. After the ice gets out of the Arctic
inland lakes-from the lst to the 10th of
August i'll the deepest ones-and much be
| fore that i'll the very shallow ones, the
water has a chance to warm up little,
and flowers spring into existence around
its borders in the densest profusion, while
the great amount of aquatic life on its sur
face, seeking food during the breeding sea
| son. looks much more like a lake III the
temperate zone than one in the Arctic. |
/ believe | can cOnscientiously say that !
have seen lake shores in Arctic countries
where traveller might walk for a hun
| dred yards and hardly be able to put his
| foot down without crushing one or more,
so very thick were they. The predomin
ating color of these polar flowers seemed
to be found in the various tints lying be
| tween white and yellow, giving a bright
/ golden look to the beds where thickest.
/ Specialists in Arctic botany tell US that
there are no less than 162 kinds of flowers
to be found in the frigid zone, and about
80 of these are not to be found anywhere
else; that is, they are really polar flowers.
Singularly enough all of these are to be
found i'll the Arctic, towering plant new
er having been found in the Antarctic.
Apropos Of the yellow-white colors Of Arc
tic plants, it is not uninteresting to note
that many, and probably most of our ever
lastings that seem to withstand the inroads
of the earlier frosts and that are used so
much in winter bouquets and flower dis
plays, are also of these hues. Another not
uninteresting aspect of the Arctic flowers
is to know that most of the species known
there now were once inhabitants of our
latitude when i'll the past it enjoyed l0 an
Arctic climate, and, as it grew warmer the
advancing temperature drove them in two
directions, up the high mountains, clinging
to the snow line, and northward into the
Arctic where the same climatic conditions
exist, and we have the strange anomaly of
plants under a vertical tropical sun-at
alpine elevations, however-having repre-
sentative in the desolate frigid zones,
thousands of miles away, and separated by
deserts and the dense vegetation of the
torrid and temperate zones, across which
they could no more make their way than
could musk-ox or polar bear.-Frederick
SchtCdtkd in NeiC York Independent.